Everyone is welcome. You do not have to pre-book/register. (Contact: Marika.Sherwood@sas.ac.uk)

27 September (G34 - Gordon Room) Kate Donnington 'Feeding the ghosts': George Hibbert, the West India Docks and the memory of British Slave Ownership.' This paper will explore the ways in which George Hibbert has been represented in the West India Dock area. It will consider the relationship between the representation and memory of slave ownership in Britain.

18 October (The Court Room, 1st Floor) Kwame Nimako, ‘The Legacy of Atlantic Slavery: the Unfinished Business of Emancipation’. Abolition is a legal act, and this has taken place; emancipation is a social, political and economic process, and has not yet been achieved. Taking the Dutch situation as a point of departure, I offer an assessment of how current struggles over recognition, remembrance and commemoration remain at the forefront, as revealed, for example, in the 2007 bicentenary in Great Britain, and in the preparations for the 150th anniversary of the abolition of Dutch slavery which will occur in 2013. (Book will be on sale at £15)

15 November ( G32 - Russell Room, Room) Michael Ohajuru, ‘An Introduction to the Black Presence in Renaissance Europe’ as exemplified by the Black Magus's image found on a 16th Century Rood Screen from Devon. (Now in the Victoria & Albert Museum's Collection (W.54-1928). How did the image reach Devon and what might it have meant at the time?

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Louise Raw will talk on her Book “Striking a Light", about the Bryant & May matchwomen’s strike of 1888.
Her book celebrates the achievement of the remarkable young East End women who took on a ruthless cartel and won, and proves conclusively that they changed the entire course of British labour history, and were in fact the mothers of the modern union movement.

The life histories of matchwomen like Eliza Martin and Mary Driscoll, who were instrumental in the strike, are told for the first time.

Wednesday, 10 August 2011

'The one thing we can say about London mobs and London riots is that they have defied over several centuries all attempts by the authorities to make their reappearance impossible and every effort by academics to argue that they are definitively a thing of the past. That seems set to continue to be the case.'Keith Flett, 'I love the sound of breaking glass: the London crowd, 1760-2010', Spring 2011.

A photographic journey into the history of the Notting Hill Carnival and it’s early pioneers.

Featuring the work of such acclaimed ethnographic photographers as Charlie Phillips, Alan Thornhill and Homer Sykes, Laslett’s Carnival tells the story of the internationally recognised Notting Hill Carnival's growth, from it’s humble beginnings as a local street fete into Europe’s largest and most celebrated street
festival.

The exhibition highlights some rarely explored moments in time, including the work of Claudia Jones and the often-overlooked contributions of local activist Mrs. Rhaune Laslett and Trinidadian steel pan player Russ Henderson. For the first time, we shall see the true history of carnival’s evolution and the key players who were instrumental in it’s transformation, individuals such as: Junior Telfer, Sonny Black, Selwyn Baptiste, Sterling Betancourt and the architect of the modern carnival, Leslie Palmer.

Photographs chronicle the tale of how Rhaune Laslett and Russ Henderson merged an ordinary British children’s street procession with the distinctive sounds of the Trinidadian steel pan, thereby bridging some of the cultural differences and racial tensions endemic of the time. The photographic artifacts of this historic journey are on display in striking detail, bringing together a magnificent collection of images, many previously unseen, Laslett’s Carnival captures a rare slice of British history in a stunning exhibition spectators won't soon forget.

A discussion with some of the main protagonists of the time and the photographers who captured their experience accompanies this exhibition’s exciting preview.

Mass Strike, syndicalist firebrands, running battles with police and troops, middle class citizens militias, a gunboat sent up the Mersey and two strikers shot dead...

This was Liverpool in 1911. On the brink of revolution? A mythical or pivotal moment in the rise of a radical city? What 'lessons' are to be drawn from 1911 as we face the current crisis in 2011? This is history meant for you!

The 1911 Liverpool General Transport Strike was the most significant episode in the stormy period of the 1910-14 Great Unrest when Edwardian Britain was shaken by mass strikes and open working class revolt. This revolt prepared the ground for mass trade unionism among workers. The history of 1911 is still relevant today as working people and their families face the greatest assault on living standards and public services since the 1930s.

The conference will provide meetings of popular history with discussion and debate on different aspects of 1911 including:

Opening plenary by Eric Taplin, author of 'Near to Revolution: The Liverpool General Transport Strike of 1911'

Richard Gott, former editor and journalist, is the author of numerous books mainly on Latin America, including a history of Cuba and the new Venezuela of Hugo Chavez. His latest book is "Britain's Empire:
Resistance, Repression and Revolt", which will be published in September.

Robin Blackburn, former editor of New Left Review, and author of a trilogy of books on the history of slavery in the New World, the latest of which is "The American Crucible: Slavery, Emancipation and Human Rights", as well as "An Unfinished Revolution: Karl Marx and Abraham Lincoln".